You’ve finally revamped your website and it looks amazing – but what’s next?

To put it simply – Google Analytics is next. With this free tool from Google, you’ll be able to learn everything you need to know about your website, from who’s visiting, to where they’re coming from, what they’re looking at and how long they’re staying.

Given the quality of the data available, Google Analytics will allow you to optimise the user experience for website visitors. Having it installed is a no-brainer.

The audience section is a goldmine for customer research. It gives you all the basic information on the people visiting your site, including their age, gender and location, as well as more detailed data. What devices are your customers using? What browser? What are their interests?

Dive deep into the interests and shopping habits of your site visitors. In-market segments show you what kind of products they are actively researching. Affinity categories show you the users’ interest – are they foodies or shopaholics, travel buffs or TV lovers?

The acquisition section is always the first stop when we get access to a new Google Analytics account. This is where you learn how people are getting to the site. Is it through Google or Bing? Are they using a direct link, or have they come from a social platform, your digital advertising or an EDM?

The importance of this information is obvious. Once you know where your visitors are coming from, you can refine your entire online approach to ensure your website is visible in all the right places.

The behaviour data tells you what your visitors do once they arrive. Are certain pages more popular than others? How long do they spend on each page? How long do they stay on your site?

This information tells you where you’re hooking your viewers and where they might be getting lost, so you can tweak your site accordingly and improve their user experience.

Finally, the conversions tab allows you to track if your website visitors are completing the actions you want them to. This works for regular sites and e-commerce sites alike, although there’s a lot more data to track if your site falls into the latter category.

You can easily align your business objectives with the conversion tracking if you have clearly defined KPIs. Do you want people to sign-up to a newsletter, download a form, or purchase a product?

Using the sections combined will allow you to easily track the most common conversion path for your consumers. Most won’t be converted on their first visit – it takes an average of nine website visits for a purchase to be made or another desired action to be performed.

No matter what the end game is, Google Analytics will give you the data to properly and consistently refine your approach.